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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 11-20 CC MINUTESCITY OF GEM LAKE 4707 Hwy 61 #253 White Bear Lake, MN 55110-3227 Yazd file.rrff, J(aaax Minutes of Gem Lake City Council Meeting 20. November 2007 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Gem Lake was called to order by Mayor Emeott on Tuesday; November 20, 2007 at 7:08 pin in the old White Bear Township town hall. Mayor Emeott, Councilors Rasmussen, Watson, Shilling, and Artig-Swoniley were. present. Also present was:. City Attorney Patrick Kelly. Other members of the public were also.. in attendance per the sign in sheet sent around the room. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND MEETING MINUTES Minutes of City Council meeting of October 2007:.Mayor Emeott called for additions, deletions or corrections to the October 2007 City Council meeting minutes. Motion by Hutch, Second by Artig-Swornley to. approve October 16, 2007 meeting minutes as printed was unanimously approved. City Council Agenda for this meeting: Mayor Emeott called for additions, deletions or corrections to. the City Council meeting agenda for November 20, 2007. Motion by Artig-Swomley, Second by Rasmussen to approve agenda asprinted was unanimously approved. PUBLIC NOTICES Mayor Emeott noted that the time periodfor residents to. request SAC charge credits to hook up their sewer has expired on Schuneman road. Allof the Metro SAC credits available to the city have now been used up. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR Mike Turnbull, White Bear Lake Fire Department, presented information regarding what happens when a fire call is made fromwithin the City of Gem Lake. When a fire call goes out to911, the fire chief or one of the four deputy chiefs goes directly to the fire to assess it. Currently Gem Lake has no fire hydrants. Because of this, the first truck on the scene would be Tanker 4#5. holding 1500 gallons of water. Mutualaid is called as needed upon assessment of the fire. A. drop tank (modified wading pool) which holds 2000 gallons can be erected if needed to hold water. Trucks would dump water and then it is suctioned into the primary truck to fight the fire. Swimming pools or lakes are mostly not usable since the truck cannot get close enough to them to access the water without sinking and becoming useless. Response time to fires by the White Bear Firedepartment is approximately 5 sh to 6 minutes on average. White Bear Lake has its own dispatch system andown volunteer ambulance service. Up to eight dispatchcalls may go out to get an ambulance to the scene but it isthe most cost effective program in the state and comparable in response time. The White Bear Lake dispatch received a FEMA grant to upgrade to 800 MHz radios for more ability to communicate to other cities. Ideally, the fire department would like to see.: one fire hydrant every 500 feet in residentialareas and one to two per 500.feet in commercial. A fire hydrant has thecapacity to provide 1000 gallons of water a minute which allows for a quickattack of the fire. AED are also recommended in every public building. Sprinkler systems can be found in both Tousley Ford and the Montessori school. As thecity develops, it is recommendedthat fire hydrants be included. Residents are encouraged to call the fire department to request a fire inspection. They are happy to inspect fire places and make recommendations tohome owners on how to prev.entfires. Businesses are required in. Gem Lake to have an annual fire inspection. Fire prevention is the key. Look for uson the World Wide Web at gemlakemn.org COMMITTEE REPORTS Planning Commission November meeting report (Jim Lindner): Jim Lindner presented the November planning commission meeting minutes to the council and summarized by stating that the Planning Commission recommended accepting the Putman Development Guidelines, but with the knowledge that more work isanticipated to beneeded including new zoning ordinances.: Mr. Lindner stated that the Barnett parcel was not considered in this plan although probably should be looked at. The commission considered the idea ofa developmentmoratorium,: but was hesitant to recommend it to the council because ot the: negative connotation a moratorium might hold: Mr. Lindner stated that he didn't think any developers would belookingat this land now because of the economy. Several typos were found by Council Members. The approval of theminutes of the November Planning Commission meeting will be tabled :until the December 2007 .city Council meeting after typos have been corrected. Mr. Lindner suggested that a formal thank you be made to Tousley Ford for hosting the City of Gem Lake meetings for so many years. Building Committee (City Hall) report (Craig Rafferty): Mr. Rafferty reported that delays in connecting water and sewer under the railroad tracks have slowed progress. However, these connections are almost completed.. Still needcarpeting and tile. Also pipe work, electrical and lighting still left to do. Carpeting and tile work remain. OLD BUSINESS A) RFP (Request for Proposal) - City Audit process for next 4 years: Mayor Emeott reported that he and Councilor Schilling weremeeting next week to review RFPs regarding an audit of the city financials. B). City MS4 report for 2006 .(Watson): Councilor Watson reported that he has a first draft and needs to meet with Mayor Emeott to review it. NEW BUSINESS A) Approval of payment of claims for October -November 2007: Mayor Emeott referred the Council to the. listing of payments requiring approval. Mayor Enleott noted that the payment to. Leonard O'Brian wasan attempt to request • a withdrawal of the Rob. Hanson appeal from the first detachment annexation case in 2006..Currently this has been put onhold and there has been no court date set. The council agreed that Attorney Kellywould call and check the status of this inattempts to move this to resolution. Mayor Emeott stated that a job description for City Clerk is currently being written. This would probably be a joint position with White Bear Township as they need additional help as well. Motion by Watson, Seconded by Rasmussen for approval of payment of claims for time period above wasunanimously approved by voice. vote. B) Acceptance of. November 2007 Financial Report: The city finances .are low right now until the second half of the tax payments are received in December, Mayor Emeott, Watson and the Gem Lake City Treasurer/White Bear Township Finance Director, Jessie Hart, will be meeting to go through the budget in anticipation of the December workshop. Motion by Schilling, Seconded byArtig-Swon1[ey to accept the November 2007 Finance report was unanimously approved by voice vote. C) Acceptance of Putman Development Guidelines (Mark Putman): Mr. Putman reviewed his request for official acceptanceof the Putman Development Guidelines for land areas in the. Co Rd.E, Highway 61 area as submitted to the :council and approval of final payment for services and reports provided.:. He responded to questions regarding building use by indicating that building uses aren't: predeterminedin the Guidelines, but suggested that current businesses such as Tousley Ford may wish to evolve into a more Village Iike feel and mayeven be better positioned ina different location in the long term.. The. Guidelines provides the city witha dynamic long term vision that it can use for developing a mixed -use.. zoning ordinance. Motion by Schilling, Seconded. by Artig-Swomley for official acceptance of the Putman Development Guidelines. Discussion followed regarding whether a moratorium should be inplace while the planning commission reviews the Report andcompletes the city's Comprehensive Plan. The city has the flexibility to allow a variance tothe tnoratoriium if a proposal was made that the council felt met all of the points outlined in the Putman Development Look for us on. the World Wide Web atgemlaketnn.org Guidelines. Mr. Lindner stated that while the Planning Commission recommended the acceptance of the Guidelines, they could not endorse its .immediate implementation at this titne.because further work needs to be done to create new zoning ordinances. Councilor Rasmussen suggested thecouncil accept the Guidelines and then moveon to further discuss how to adopt these ideas into the city. Mr. Putman stated that using the Guidelines, the city does have. a basis and criteria for a moratorium while these guidelinesare put into zoning ordinances. Mr. Rafferty also suggested that a vote of confidence by accepting the Guidelines thecity could accept the Guidelines and use it for the basis of planning and zoning and incorporation into the comprehensive plan. The motion to accept the Putman Development Guidelines in its current form was unanimously approved by voice vote. D) Building Moratorium for Development. areas: Mayor Eineott reminded the council that currently, if someone came to the city withbuilding plans for thefour corners at Highway 61 and County Road E and met current zoning criteria, the city would haveto issue a building permit regardless of theworkthat the city has done in long range planning. A 6-18 month building moratorium for this corner would .allow the city to generate new zoning ordinancesand rules for the area to be sure. that the City's new ideas for developmentwere incorporated. Six months would be the minimumrecommended time and the city could choose toextend it if work was not complete.. A variance clausecan be added tothemoratorium for builders that comeright on target with the Putman Development Guidelines recommendations. Thecitycould easily deny variances if they didnot meet all of the requirements or were less than what the city council had envisioned. Discussion continued about the north east corner of Highway 61 and County Road E, which has not yet been reviewed. Mr. Putman suggested the council could also include a moratorium for building on adjacent land stating that development on this parcel requires mutually consistent implementation of the guidelines out outlinedin the Putman Development Guidelines. Further discussion occurred about the fact that the Planning Commission will need help in writingzoning ordinances. Recommend continue work with Putman. Mr. Putman willput together a proposal regarding continued service to Gem Lake as describe in the Putman services brochure Option 9, Ordinance writing and consultation, Mr. Putman again stated that the 3-D visioning optionmight be a goodoption for the city to allow residents and land. owners to really envision the recommendations of the Putman Development Guidelines. The review of this proposal will be included in the December City Council meeting. Discussion regarding the length of time the moratoriumshould be in effect. Various times periods were considered with a final determination thatnine months seemed appropriate as this is also the time period until the due date of the City's comprehensive plan. Motion by Artig-Swomley, Seconded. Schilling for a nine (9) month building moratorium on the land as described in the Putman Development Guidelrnes, and including thenorth east corner of Highway 61 and Co Road E. The final wording of the moratorium will be developed by Attorney Kelly. A: voice vote by individual Council Member was requested by Mayor Emeott. The motion was unanimously approved with the following recorded votes: Councilor Artig-Swomley — Aye Councilor Schilling — Aye Mayor Emeott — Aye Councilor Watson — Aye Councilor Rasmussen — Aye.. E) New Building change order 'acceptance ;—.Mayor Emeott reported that a rebate of $25,000 for the roofing system might not materializebecause the truss company were delivered different than what was specified and the insulators could not get to the vaults of the roof to spray in insulation. So they had to use foam. There was much discussion about if this is the responsibility of the contactor:, or the truss manufacturer. Thegood news is that the change has created a value added situation as the way the insulation is nowinstalled; much higher R values have been obtained. it was decided that the City would wait until close out of theproject andfinal payment to negotiate the details. F) Snow plowing contract for winter 07-08 (Schifsky and WBT quote): Mayor Emeott has obtained two bids forsnow plowing for the current winter season of 2007-08. Motion by Schilling, Seconded Artig-Swomley for. Look for us on the World Wide Web at gemlakemn.org approval of the Scbifsky.quote witha statement regarding responsibility to Schifsky for repairing curb damage caused. by the plows was unanimously approved by voice vote. G) City Newsletter (Artig-Swomley): Councilor Artig-Swomley.reported that the December City newsletter would include info about the progress of the new city hall, a spotlight on Cafe Cravings, info presented by Mike Turnbull regarding fire inspections, ordinances, storm water, a factor fiction questions, progress on Comprehensive Plan, Profile on a Resident, and anexplanation of the building. moratorium. Mayor Erneott indicated that he received proposal from Town Life for 2008. It was decided not to continue publishingin this as it is: not recognized as the city newsletter and thedeadlines for submission are too far in advance. H) New building furniture:. Mayor Emeott discussed several options for furniture for the new City Hall. including option to use S&T furniture (about $100/chair) or Sam's Club. Mayor Emeott brought to the meeting a sample chair from Sam's Club as an option. Councilor Artig-Swomley agreed to help plan a grandopening of the new City Hall in conjunction with White Bear Township and to look further into other options for free of low cost furniture. I): New ordinances or revision to City Ordinance: New and revised city ordinanceswill bediscussed at the January City Workshop to be held January 71'. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR None. FUTURE CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS: Next City Council Workshop -- Monday, December 3, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at Tousley Ford meeting room. Subject: 2008 City Budget. Next City Council Meeting/Public Hearing - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. in the new Gem Lake City Hall or alternate. site. ADJOURN: The November 2007.regular meeting of the Gem Lake City Council was adjourned at 10:12 p.m. AUTHORIZED: November 12, 2007 APPROVED: December 18, 2007 ATTEST: ATTEST: Teresa Tice, Recording Secretary aul R. Em eott, Mayor Certified Copy. Look for.. us on the World Wide Webat gemlakemn.org Attendance List for Gem Lake City Council Meeting: November 20, 2007 Patrick Kelly City Attorney Justin Gese. SEH Jim Lindner Gem Lake PIanning Commission Chair Robert Uzpen Big Fox Road Mike Turnbull. Fire Inspector. Steve and Beth Herzog Goose Lake Road Craig Rafferty Sig Fox Road Mike S??? Look for us on the World.. Wide: Web at gemla(emn.org